-
The Youngest WW1 Soldiers
Over 250,000 underage soldiers were allowed to fight in World War 1. The youngest was a boy named Sidney Lewis who was just 12 years old but lied about his age to join. There were many thousands of underage boys who enlisted and most-lied about their age. Some joined for the love of their country, while others did it to escape from the lives and the poor conditions they lived in. -
The First Battle of the Marne
The Germans wanted to take out the french before Russia. The initial German offensive had some early success, but they did not have enough reinforcements available to sustain momentum. The French and British launched a counter-offensive at the Marne on 6-10 September 1914. after several days of bitter fighting, the Germans were forced to retreat. -
Gallipoli
The Gallipoli campaign on 25 April 1915 - 9 January 1916 was the land-based element of a strategy intended to allow Allied ships to pass through the Dardanelles. They wanted to capture Constantinople and ultimately knock Ottoman Turkey out of the war. the Allied plans were based on the belief that the Ottomans could be easily defeated. -
12 Million Letters Were Delivered to the Front-line Weekly
Even during times of war, it only took two days for a letter to be delivered from Britain to France. A purpose-built mail sorting office was created in Regent’s Park before the letters were sent to the trenches on the frontline. By the time the war ended, over two billion letters and 114 million parcels had been delivered to the trenches. -
Battle of Verdun
The battle of Verdun lasted from 21 February to 18 December 1916 was the longest battle of the First World War. It began with a German attack on the fortified French town of Verdun, where bitter fighting would continue for most of the year. The ten-hour opening bombardment saw an unprecedented concentration of firepower and although the French were forced back they did not break. -
The Battle of Jutland
The Battle of Jutland on 31 May - 1 June 1916 was the largest naval battle of the First World War. It was the only time that the British and German fleets of battleships actually fought. The German High Seas Fleet hoped to weaken the Royal Navy by launching an ambush on the British Grand Fleet in the North Sea. German Admiral Reinhard planned to lure out both Admiral Sir David Beatty’s Battlecruiser Force and Admiral Sir John Jellicoe's Grand Fleet. -
Battle of Somme
The Battle of the Somme on 1 July - 18 November 1916 was a joint operation between British and French forces intended to achieve a decisive victory over the Germans on the Western Front. For many in Britain, the resulting battle remains the most painful and infamous episode of the First World War. Allied commanders had met to discuss strategies for the upcoming year and agreed to launch a joint French and British attack in the region of the River Somme in the summer of 1916. -
An Explosion on the Battlefield in France was Heard in England
Most of World War One was fought in mud and trenches, but a group of miners would also dig underground tunnels and detonate mines behind the enemy’s trenches. In Messines Ridge in Belgium, these miners detonated over 900,000lbs of explosives at the same time, destroying the German front line. The explosion was so loud and powerful that it was heard by the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George 140 miles away in Downing Street. -
Plastic Surgery
Shrapnel caused many facial injuries in WW1 and the twisted metal would inflict far worse injuries than the straight-line wounds of a bullet. Dr. Gillies pioneered the early techniques for facial reconstruction. He tried to heal people’s faces before they went home to the states. Thus led to the invention of plastic surgery. -
Blood banks
It was during WW1 that the routine use of blood transfusion was used to treat wounded soldiers. Blood was transferred directly from one person to another. In 1917, a US Army doctor by the name of Captain Oswald Johnson established the first blood bank on the Western Front. He used sodium citrate to prevent the blood from coagulating and becoming unusable.
